Digital rights, digital wrongs + Google | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/series/digitalwrongs+google
model.DotcomContentType$TagIndex$@167dbf2ben-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018Thu, 24 May 2018 18:21:23 GMT2018-05-24T18:21:23Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Just because something has value doesn't mean it has a pricehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/08/why-charge-everything-kill-creativity
If every last shred of incidental online value is given a price tag, we'll never harvest the full fruits of our ingenuity<p>When future economists look back on the dawn of the internet era, they will marvel that an age of such technological marvel was attended by a widespread, infantile mania for preventing positive externalities.</p><p>"Externalities" are the economist's catchall term for the spillover effects experienced by the people who are affected by others' activities. Most of the 20th century was spent locked in battle with the corporate vice of externalising negative costs. Companies are beholden to their shareholders, and so they are meant to save every penny they can, even when saving that penny might cost the rest of society several pounds. The classic example is toxic waste: processing industrial waste before it leaves the factory is a costly proposition, and so, whenever it is possible to do so, companies have defaulted to dumping their waste into the wider world. This is a much cheaper option — for the company.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/08/why-charge-everything-kill-creativity">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyComputingFacebookGoogleMedia businessMediaTue, 08 Jan 2013 11:01:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/08/why-charge-everything-kill-creativityPhotograph: Britta Pedersen/EPAGoogle is a case-study in harvesting positive externalities. Photograph: Britta Pedersen/EPAPhotograph: Britta Pedersen/EPAGoogle is a case-study in harvesting positive externalities. Photograph: Britta Pedersen/EPACory Doctorow2013-01-08T11:01:10ZGoogle admits that Plato's cave doesn't existhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jun/12/google-searchengines
Google implies that a page of search results is effectively the table of contents for a custom-made magazine assembled on the fly in response to a user's query<p>Google is under increasing pressure to change the way it ranks search results. Earlier in June, Recording Industry Association of America chief executive Cary Sherman told the US Congress that Google should be required to place "legitimate" sites at the top of the list when its users search for musicians and music.</p><p>Presumably, Sherman would prefer that the "illegitimate" sites – whether that's the Pirate Bay or some other site – not be returned at all in the rankings, or at the very least, that they should be relegated to page 10,000,000 in the rankings, deep into the "oooo" in "Gooooooooogle."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jun/12/google-searchengines">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyGoogleSearch enginesInternetSEOIntellectual propertyTue, 12 Jun 2012 12:48:51 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jun/12/google-searchenginesPhotograph: Public DomainIf you want higher rankings, Google says you should 'make great, relevant content'Photograph: Public DomainIf you want higher rankings, Google says you should 'make great, relevant content'Cory Doctorow2012-06-12T12:48:51ZThe pirates of YouTubehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/dec/12/pirates-of-youtube-cory-doctorow
The real villains of YouTube are the multinational companies cashing in on public domain footage they claim is their own<p>When you hear about "piracy" in connection to YouTube, perhaps you think of the billion-dollar lawsuit brought by Viacom against the Google division, claiming that Google should have the duty to police all of its users' uploads to determine that they don't infringe copyright.</p><p>Google does something very close to this already, of course: the company offers a service to rights holders called "ContentID" that is meant to automatically police copyrights on their behalf. Rights holders upload copies of their copyrighted works to YouTube and identify themselves as the proprietors of those works, and YouTube scours its files for videos or audio that appear to be connected with those copyrights.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/dec/12/pirates-of-youtube-cory-doctorow">Continue reading...</a>YouTubeGoogleTechnologyInternetIntellectual propertyDigital mediaMediaUS newsMedia businessPiracyLawMon, 12 Dec 2011 15:27:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/dec/12/pirates-of-youtube-cory-doctorowPhotograph: Public domainYouTube offers very little help for FedFlixPhotograph: Public domainYouTube offers very little help for FedFlixCory Doctorow2011-12-12T15:27:00ZGoogle Plus forces us to discuss identityhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/aug/30/google-plus-discuss-identity
Google's Real Name policy embodies a theory that states the way to maximise civility is to abolish anonymity<p>Google Plus's controversial identity policy requires all users to use their "real names". Commentators have pointed to problems with this, including the implausibility of Google being able to determine correctly which names are real and which ones are fake. Other problems include the absurdity of Google's demand for scans of government ID to accomplish this task and the fractal implausibility of Google being able to discern real from fake in all forms of government ID.</p><p>Google argues that people behave better when they use their real names. Google also states it is offering an identity service, not a social network, and therefore needs to know who you are and, thirdly, that no one is forcing you to use Google Plus.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/aug/30/google-plus-discuss-identity">Continue reading...</a>Google+TechnologyEric SchmidtGoogleInternetSocial networkingFacebookPrivacy & the mediaMediaDigital mediaTue, 30 Aug 2011 12:12:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/aug/30/google-plus-discuss-identityPhotograph: Ho/REUTERSGoogle Plus: no stupider moment for Google to subscribe to the gospel of Zuckerberg. Photograph: Ho/ReutersPhotograph: Ho/REUTERSGoogle Plus: no stupider moment for Google to subscribe to the gospel of Zuckerberg. Photograph: Ho/ReutersCory Doctorow2011-08-30T12:12:34ZAndroid and iOS both fail, but Android fails betterhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/technology-failure-more-important-than-success
How well a system works is only half the picture: the other half is how badly it fails<p>My <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/25/why-samsung-galaxy-tab-is-meh" title="">recent review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet</a> stirred up a dreary and inevitable round of OS advocacy and such, with both Apple and Android lovers baying like wounded members of persecuted religious minorities, arguing about which OS is most worthy of our love and devotion.</p><p>For me, no love or devotion is due to an operating system or a gadget.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/technology-failure-more-important-than-success">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyAndroidGoogleMobile phonesSoftwareAppleComputingiPhoneTelecomsTue, 09 Aug 2011 09:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/technology-failure-more-important-than-successPhotograph: Robert Galbraith/ReutersAndroid running on a Nexus One smartphone. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/ReutersPhotograph: Robert Galbraith/ReutersAndroid running on a Nexus One smartphone. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/ReutersCory Doctorow2011-08-09T09:30:00ZWhy Samsung's Galaxy Tab is 'meh'https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/25/why-samsung-galaxy-tab-is-meh
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 does all the basic stuff you'd like from an Android tablet, but there are a few annoyances and a couple of dreadful flaws<p>Ever since the iPad shipped, I've been waiting impatiently for a comparable Android device to emerge – something of like shape, size and capacity, but from a more open ecosystem than the one Apple offers.</p><p>Like Apple, Google operates an Android App Store that it controls – if your app doesn't please Google, it doesn't go in the store. But unlike Apple, Google allows you to install apps from unofficial sources, meaning that you can download apps directly from their authors or buy them from stores that compete with (or complement) Google's store.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/25/why-samsung-galaxy-tab-is-meh">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyTablet computersComputingAndroidSoftwareiPadGoogleAppleAppsSamsungMon, 25 Jul 2011 09:58:32 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/25/why-samsung-galaxy-tab-is-mehPhotograph: Jo Yong-Hak/ReutersSamsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 was launched at the company's headquarters in Seoul. Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/ReutersPhotograph: Jo Yong-Hak/ReutersSamsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 was launched at the company's headquarters in Seoul. Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/ReutersCory Doctorow2011-07-25T09:58:32ZPublishers and the internet: a changing role | Cory Doctorowhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role
Connecting with the audience is still publishing's aim, but does the internet make it distribute first and publish later?<p>Once in a while, someone will say something that's so self-evidently true, and so unexpected, that you'll spend the rest of your life working through its implications. For me, one such truth is "A publisher makes a work public, it connects a work and an audience", and the person who said it is my editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor at Tor Books, the largest science fiction publisher in the world.</p><p>I first heard Patrick say this a decade or more ago, sometime after Google was founded, but before it was the enormous powerhouse it is today. Patrick was talking about the role of a publisher, and how it might change as a consequence of the internet. As soon as he said it, something clicked for me: the Flatiron Building, the famous skyscraper in midtown Manhattan that houses Tor and its parent company, Macmillan, is essentially in three businesses.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role">Continue reading...</a>PublishingTechnologyInternetGoogleMediaDigital mediaThu, 30 Jun 2011 10:59:22 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-rolePhotograph: Allan Baxter/Getty ImagesThe Flatiron Building (centre), New York, home to Tor Books and Macmillan. Photograph: Allan Baxter/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Allan Baxter/Getty ImagesThe Flatiron Building (centre), New York, home to Tor Books and Macmillan. Photograph: Allan Baxter/Getty ImagesCory Doctorow2011-06-30T10:59:22ZGoogle's YouTube policy for Android users is copyright extremismhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/may/31/google-restricting-android-youtube-video
Denying access to pay-per-view videos for those who modify their Android devices is the antithesis of openness<p>The news that Android users who have jailbroken their phones will be denied access to the new commercial YouTube pay-per-view service is as neat an example of copyright extremism as you could hope for.</p><p>Android, of course, is Google's wildly popular alternative to Apple's iOS (the operating system found on iPhones and iPads). Android is free and open – it costs nothing to copy, it can be legally modified and those modifications can be legally distributed. Android products come in varying degrees of lockdown; flagship devices such as the Samsung Nexus S are easy to set up to run competing, unofficial flavours of Android (such as CyanogenMod, which adds lots of useful features and controls to your phone that are missing from the stock Android version). Other phones use various kinds of hardware and software locks that try to get in the way of installing your own OS, and while Google doesn't prohibit this behaviour from its vendors, it also doesn't encourage it – until now.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/may/31/google-restricting-android-youtube-video">Continue reading...</a>GoogleYouTubeAndroidPiracySoftwareDigital videoDigital mediaTechnologyTue, 31 May 2011 14:04:39 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/may/31/google-restricting-android-youtube-videoPhotograph: Pichi Chuang/ReutersAndroid-based smartphones running a modified operating system will not have access to YouTube's video streaming service. Photograph: Pichi Chuang/ReutersPhotograph: Pichi Chuang/ReutersAndroid-based smartphones running a modified operating system will not have access to YouTube's video streaming service. Photograph: Pichi Chuang/ReutersCory Doctorow2011-05-31T14:04:39ZThe mobile revolution has arrivedhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jun/15/android-nexus-one-mobile-phones
People have been talking about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years, but on a recent book tour with my Android phone, I realised it's finally here<p>I've just come back from a month-long, multi-city, US and Canada book tour for my new novel, For the Win. I've done book tours before, but this one was different: this was the tour with an Android Nexus One phone, and it was game-changing.</p><p>I've been told about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years now, but frankly, mobile phones are generally rubbish. The carriers are awful and abusive. The apps suck. And so on. Something's changed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jun/15/android-nexus-one-mobile-phones">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyAndroidMobile phonesGoogleInternetTue, 15 Jun 2010 12:12:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jun/15/android-nexus-one-mobile-phonesCory Doctorow2010-06-15T12:12:09ZRupert Murdoch: for whom the net tollshttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/10/rupert-murdoch-charging-for-internet
Rupert Murdoch wants to remake the web as a toll both, with him in the collector's seat, but the net won't shift to his will<p>Just what, exactly, is Rupert Murdoch <em>thinking</em>? First, he announces that all of News Corp's websites will erect paywalls like the one employed by the Wall Street Journal (however, Rupert managed to get the details of the <em>WSJ</em>'s wall wrong – no matter, he's a "big picture" guy). Then, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/10/rupert-murdoch-google" title="he announced that Google and other search engines were " plagiarists"">he announced that Google and other search engines were "plagiarists"</a> who "rip off" Newscorp's content, and that once the paywalls are up (a date that keeps slipping farther into the future, almost as though the best IT people work for someone who's not Rupert "I Hate the Net" Murdoch!) he'll be blocking Google and the other "parasites" from his sites, making all of News Corp's properties invisible to search engines. Then, as a kind of loonie cherry atop a banana split with extra crazy sauce, Rupert announces that "<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/08/rupert-murdoch-vows.html" title="fair use is illegal">fair use is illegal</a>" and he'll be abolishing it shortly.</p><p>What is he thinking? We'll never know, of course, but I have a theory.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/10/rupert-murdoch-charging-for-internet">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyInternetGoogleRupert MurdochNews CorporationSearch enginesMyspaceMediaCharging for contentNews UKDigital mediaPaywallsLawTue, 10 Nov 2009 18:44:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/10/rupert-murdoch-charging-for-internetPhotograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesRupert Murdoch &quot;has set his sights on remaking the web as a toll booth&quot;. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesPhotograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesRupert Murdoch &quot;has set his sights on remaking the web as a toll booth&quot;. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesCory Doctorow2009-11-10T18:44:00ZCory Doctorow: Chris Anderson's Free adds much to The Long Tail, but falls shorthttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/jul/28/cory-doctorow-free-chris-anderson
The economics of 'free' goods and services cannot be explained in terms of the marketplace, digital or otherwise – humans are more complicated than that<p>This month saw the publication of the Wired US editor-in-chief Chris Anderson's latest business book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, a followup (of sorts) to the 2006 bestseller The Long Tail. I quite enjoyed The Long Tail, a book about the market opportunities created by the plummeting cost of inventory epitomized by the Amazons of the world.</p><p>While a traditional bookstore may stock a few thousand titles, Amazon can afford to "stock" (that is, list) millions of titles, and when they do so, they discover a remarkable thing: the titles that some bookstores ignored for absence of demand are, in fact, in demand. Not much demand – a book may sell a copy a year, or twice a decade – but where the cost of supplying that demand is nearly zero (Amazon's warehouse space is cheaper than a bookseller's retail shelf, and many of the books that Amazon sells are directly supplied by their publisher, or, increasingly, printed to order), it becomes possible to fulfil that demand.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/jul/28/cory-doctorow-free-chris-anderson">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyGoogleP2PFilesharingTue, 28 Jul 2009 11:47:49 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/jul/28/cory-doctorow-free-chris-andersonPhotograph: Nicholas Bailey / Rex FeaturesStalls at Borough Market in London have vastly different characteristics to online service markets. Photograph: Nicholas Bailey/Rex FeaturesPhotograph: Nicholas Bailey / Rex FeaturesStalls at Borough Market in London have vastly different characteristics to online service markets. Photograph: Nicholas Bailey/Rex FeaturesCory Doctorow2009-07-28T11:47:49ZCory Doctorow: Search is too important to leave to one company – even Googlehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jun/01/search-public-google-privacy-rights
It may seem as unlikely as a publicly edited encyclopedia, but the internet needs publicly controlled search<p>Search is the beginning and the end of the internet. Before search, there was the idea of an organised, hierarchical internet, set up along the lines of the Dewey Decimal system.</p><p>Again and again, net pioneers tried to build such systems, but they were always outcompeted by the messy hairball of the real world. As Wikipedia shows, building consensus about what goes where in a big org chart is hard, and the broader the subject area, the harder it gets.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jun/01/search-public-google-privacy-rights">Continue reading...</a>GoogleSearch enginesWikipediaInternetTechnologyPrivacyTue, 02 Jun 2009 12:37:45 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jun/01/search-public-google-privacy-rightsPhotograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/GettyGoogle altered its UK homepage to mark a royal visit. But the site is far more powerful than the monarch. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/GettyPhotograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/GettyGoogle altered its UK homepage to mark a royal visit. But the site is far more powerful than the monarch. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/GettyCory Doctorow2009-06-02T12:37:45ZCory Doctorow: We must ensure ISPs don't stop the next Google getting out of the garagehttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/may/19/we-must-ensure-google-garage
Allowing ISPs to have too much would drastically hinder the chances of fresh new startups developing into major businesses – as happened with Google<p>If politicians want to effect economic recovery, national competitiveness, good public health and high civic engagement, they have a duty to keep the internet free and open. But politicians around the world seem willing to sacrifice their national interest to keep a few powerful phone and telcoms companies happy.</p><p>Take the Telcoms Package now before the EU: among other things, the package paves the way for ISPs and Quangos to block or slow access to websites and services on an arbitrary basis. At the same time, ISPs are instituting and enforcing strict bandwidth limits on their customers, citing shocking statistics about the bandwidth hogs who consume vastly more resources than the average punter.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/may/19/we-must-ensure-google-garage">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyGoogleInternetTechnology startupsTue, 19 May 2009 15:28:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/may/19/we-must-ensure-google-garagePhotograph: BEN MARGOT/ASSOCIATED PRESSGoogle co-founders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin at the company's headquarters. Photograph: Ben Margot/Associated PressPhotograph: BEN MARGOT/ASSOCIATED PRESSGoogle co-founders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin at the company's headquarters. Photograph: Ben Margot/Associated PressCory Doctorow2009-05-19T15:28:38Z